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Person of the Year in the Ethnic Press: It's Not You
Reality show survivors, writers, and politicians made their way to the ethnic
media's list of candidates for Person of the Year
By Peter Micek, New America Media
Posted: Jan 06, 2007
Where Time magazine dares not tread, the diverse and growing ethnic media of
the United States submit their own candidates for Person of the Year.
From reality-show survivors to those who perished, politicians to scribes,
ethnic faces made the news in 2006. The media that cover each ethnic community
nationwide chose some for their covers, and some for the B-list. The sum of
their choices show that media matters, sex sells and ethnic insurgents made
their way into the hallways of power in 2006.
"Is 2006 the year of the Asian male?" asks Emil Guillermo, columnist for San
Francisco's Asian Week. The paper praised the winner of the reality TV show
"Survivor," Yul Kwon, with an article titled, "Sexy Asian is Sole Survivor."
"Kwon is young, smart and shredded," Guillermo gushed. "Kwon is everything that
the Asian American male is not in the media image presented to the American
public."
On the CBS Survivor website, Kwon lists his interests as politics, boxing,
ultimate fighting -- a mixed martial arts competition -- and volunteering with
kids.
Kwon breaks stereotypes, according to one commenter on the website TV.com.
"Americans rarely think of Asians as strong leaders with group skills," writes
jys390. "Some Asian male who is fighting for a promotion in his company has to
be clearly twice as strong as his white counterpart. This is why you rarely find
Asians as executives despite the fact that they excel during the more
meritocratic process of schools. Once 'perception' and 'connections' come into
play in terms of moving up the corporate ladder, then Asians have to suffer the
same prejudice as other minorities."
Another Korean-American, James Kim, who died while searching for help for his
stranded family in the Oregon wilderness, better fits the Asian male stereotype,
according to Guillermo. Kim was a low-key, soft-spoken gadget-lover. But his
desperate trek over mountains and through freezing rivers to save his family was
a lasting image of 2006. True heroes sometimes do not survive, Guillermo writes.
On the lighter side, Jamal Dajani, host of Mosaic Intelligence Report, a San
Francisco-based Arab media roundup on Link TV, considered Time magazine's choice
for Person of the Year in 2006, "You."
"That means they couldn't think of anyone," Dajani says. "We picked our person
of the year -- and it's not you."
Instead, Mosiac chose Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a "genius" at
mobilizing Iranian public opinion. Unlike other Iranian leaders before him,
Dajani says, Ahmadinejad rose from obscurity to the world stage. He made nuclear
power an issue of pride for his country, and proved the United States does not
stand in his way.
"We didn't choose Ahmadinejad because he is a great person," Dajani adds. "That
is not the criteria. My choice would be someone like Ghandi or Mother Teresa if
they were alive, but unfortunately they are not. It's about who made headlines
or news, either positive or negative."
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took office with a broad coalition of
supporters, according to Vida en el Valle, a bilingual publication from
California's Central Valley. The paper named him the Latino likely to have the
most impact in the coming year.
Unlike failed New York mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer, Villaraigosa reached
out across communities, color lines and political divides, says Orlando Sentinel
columnist Myriam Marquéz.
A Latino comedy radio show celebrated Villaraigosa's victory with the song "Livin'
Villaraigosa," based on the Ricky Martin tune "Livin' la Vida Loca."
Another Latino to watch, according to Vida en el Valle, is New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson, who supported the undocumented immigrant mother Elvira Arellano and
helped secure the release of a Chicago Tribune reporter held in Sudan.
Richardson will run for president in 2008, Vida en el Valle editors say.
Charrisse Domingo, a writer at the youth magazine Silicon Valley De-Bug, says
Filipinos in 2006 rallied around boxer Manny Pacquiao, a ray of hope for the
Philippines. "For as long as I can remember," Domingo writes, "the political and
cultural life of my country has been troubled. It seems as if there's a coup
attempt on the government every six months or so. But when Manny Pacquiao
fights, the entire country literally stops what it is doing and watches."
Though Pacquiao's personal history of fighting adversity mirrors the nation's
own past and future challenges, Domingo says, the boxer should not enter the
political arena, as other athletes and entertainers in the Philippines have
done. "Philippine politics has corrupted the best-intentioned people, and I
would hate for Manny's fighting spirit to be claimed in the name of more
McDonalds, Starbucks and golf courses," Domingo writes.
Indian Americans reveled in a bevy of philanthropic and literary stars,
including Mann Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai. But more interesting, perhaps,
was the placement of Washington Post journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran on the
cover of The Indian American magazine. He wrote a book from Iraq's Green Zone.
His entrance into a white world of reporting, though, makes him a person of the
times.
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